Phantom 3 Advanced Reliability

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I'm a former P3S owner and I sold it and I'm planning to get the P3A.

How reliable is the P3A? How many of you have never had any problems? Is the range what DJI advertises? Is there any jello in your videos?


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I'm a former P3S owner and I sold it and I'm planning to get the P3A.

How reliable is the P3A? How many of you have never had any problems? Is the range what DJI advertises? Is there any jello in your videos?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
Very
A lot
Can be. Easily avoided with ND filters to keep shutter speed around twice frame rate.

I have the P3P and only issue has been a trip back to DJI for shell replacement (cracked arms).
 
I have the very first model of P3A (I preordered it).
I never had any issue: no arm crackings, no flyaways, no gimbal issues.
The range is very environmental depending, because with the very same craft I reached 2.0km (I live in europe) as well lost control at less than 1.0km. By the way, with a very cheap windsurfer antenna booster I doubled my range.
I remember a few issue with the app during the first monthes (it used to crash during flight) but it's something that was solved long ago.
Only one time I had my P3A automatically switching to ATTI because of a problem with compass, but I know it was due to a bad compass calibration.

Go buy it.
With the actual prices you won't regret it.
 
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I recently upgraded from a standard to the advanced. My range is good - easily twice what my souped up standard will do. Watch out for the "second" gimbal guard. In addition to the clear plastic one that always arrives fallen off there's another little white foam nerf thingy on the neck of the gimbal. It has a tiny sticker that says "remove before flight". I missed that. I'm still flying with the 1.4 firmware it came with no problem.
 
I'm a former P3S owner and I sold it and I'm planning to get the P3A.

How reliable is the P3A? How many of you have never had any problems? Is the range what DJI advertises? Is there any jello in your videos?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Completely reliable so far 94 flights
No problems
Have gone 4.4km and still full signal.
No jello.
Bought ND 8 & ND 16 filters. Don't like them and don't use them. P3A works good without.
 
I upgraded from the S to the A also. The A is very solid and I'm happy with it, whereas with the S, that was a great tool to begin and learn with. It's a nice feeling knowing that I can go about as far as I want as long as I have the battery power to return, with ideal conditions mind you. With the S, even with modifications, I was always getting weak signals and RTH's, so disappointing, but it was fun though! The P3S is a solid machine. The P3A is just better, and only a couple hundred bucks more than the S, the added features alone make it more desirable. I spent more than that on upgrades, extra remote, etc. when I had the standard, but the Sam's Club Black Friday price was too hard to resist at the time.

I never fly in ATTI mode, only GPS, but the main reason why I switched was to get more range out the box, and the controller is far better in every way (the tablet mount, dual antennas, very solid feel, etc.) I've never once had a problem with the A. In order for me to achieve my longest distance, I had to be in a location that had no wi-fi signals, and the land was flat. It was almost 12,000 ft away and I was grinning from ear to ear. The best i ever achieved with the S was a little over 5k feet, and that was with antenna modifications.

I bought when the price dropped to $799. I have a feeling we'll be seeing it under $600 on Black Friday. That's only 4 months away.
 
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Thank you everyone! And one more question that Chasbro just reminded me of. Do you always update your fw, and is the latest version the best, or do you not update the fw and what version are you on?


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Do you always update your fw, and is the latest version the best, or do you not update the fw and what version are you on?

No. The last release (v 1.9.60) added the following:
  • Updated the Flight Restriction Zone database
  • Fixed the Intelligent Flight Battery to prevent automatic restarting in cold environments.
I use AirMap.io before I fly, and never fly in restricted zones anyway. Never had a problem with the battery, either.

I'm on 1.8.8.0, which added:
  • Improved aircraft stability through optimized flight controller logic.
  • Optimized gimbal parameters.
  • Fixed clip preview error in 2.7K resolution mode.
  • Improved encryption to enhance security during transmission.
I get a message on the Go App that the firmware is available, but it goes away after a few seconds. Haven't had any problems not upgrading the FW.
 
Is there a way for me to update it to 1.8.8.0 out of the box, or will I be forced to update to the latest version?


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The worst so far are nag messages when you first start the Go App.

Also, you can downgrade the firmware back a few releases, but I would go further than v1.4.0010. This was the update that made the camera go from 1080p to 2.7K, and I believe it added 1080p 60fps as opposed to 1080p 30fps.
 
Love my P3A, no problems, no jello.
I fly with UAV BITS Strong Arms to prevent cracks and since I fly over water a lot, a Getterback water retrieval system.
 
Don't be in a rush to update the firmware or the go app. Going back can be difficult or impossible on firmware.
 
Why is everyone so against updating firmware? I update mine within 1-2 days of it coming out and have never had any issues with any updates. My only issue is the RC does not update - running 1.06 on RC and 1.09 on AC. All fw updates on bird have worked flawlessly.
To the original question about reliability - I feel the A is very reliable. I've ran into trees, ceiling fan, bushes and a few other things. The bird has scratches, camera horizon is slightly off, but all this is due to user error. My A has taken a beating yet always starts up and runs smooth.
Many of the other horror stories you read are people not admitting user error and blaming the Phantom, 3rd Party apps, or DJI.
 
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A/C - 1.9.6
R/C - 2.8.3
Don't understand the logic of not having the latest f/w, but each to their own.

Agree.
Additionally, should your AC just fall out of the sky, what argument will you have with DJI when they say "your drone fell because you didn't update the firmware". Why would you want to put yourself in that potential situation?
 
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